Travelog for: Tommi

Hi there!

I am Tommi. I lived in Germany until last summer, when I followed sannah to the United States. Here I met Nils who is also from Germany, but travels the world on his own. I talk to him a lot ...



... he had to tell so many interesting stories about his experiences, so I decided to become a toy voyager myself.

I am really looking forward to see the world on my own ... The view from sannahs patio is so limited!



Maybe I can visit your place soon?

Greetings,
Tommi

Hi there!

This morning, sannah has had some things to do downtown and I sneaked into her purse to go with her.

There is not really a large market square like in most European countries, but two smaller plazas, surrounded by the tall buildings that are all belonging to the well known Mayo Clinic: enough space for research, administration, patient care - you name it!

This is an old movie theater called Chateau - today, it is a book store.


Now have a look at the Peace Plaza:


The nice building in the middle is the Plummer Building. Nils told me he sat nearly on top of it ... but somehow I can't believe him ...


sannah quickly returned to her car because she was only allowed to park 30 minutes where she was. So here I'm sitting on the top of the trunk of her car, overlooking 1st Ave W.



As you can see, not all buildings are that tall. Some are older and smaller, most of them with smaller shops or restaurants on the first floor. Because at lunch hour, the streets are crowded with people who want to grab something to eat. But we were long gone ...

sannah is very busy packing things. Tomorrow, we are leaving for a long weekend - a trip west, that's all I know!

Greetings,
Tommi

Hi there,

last weekend was a long weekend here in the US - Monday was Memorial Day, a national holiday. sannah and friends decided to spend part of the weekend on the road in order to see the very very amazing nature of the Black Hills in South Dakota.

But to be honest, most visitors of the region don't only come for the nature, but mostly for the manmade additions to the landscape.



The most famous one are four heads of former presidents: from left to right George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The fifth head in the second row is mine! 

Their upper bodies have also have been engraved in the stone, but before this could have happened, the architect died. This is his statue:



And along the President's Trail with a lot of stairs, you could also learn a lot about the four presidents that had been chosen to be part of Mount Rushmore. Nils and I studied Thomas Jefferson very carefully!



Our journey continued, so stay tuned!

All the best,
Tommi

Hi there,

right after leaving Mount Rushmore, we went to another monument carved in stone: the nearby Crazy Horse Memorial. Crazy Horse was an Indian warchief of the Lakota people and if you thought Mount Rushmore was huge, this monument is even huger!

It's so huge that it wasn't possible for sannah to take a photo of me and the original - here it is as in May 2013.


But there were many models of how the memorial should look like when it's finally completed and I was able to pose with one of it.



You can see how much work there still is to do - and they have been working on it for decades. Korczak, the sculptor who started working on it died in 1982, but the face was completed and inaugurated not earlier than 1998! His family continues the work as his heritage and since there is no government funding, progress is only made by donations and the admission fees to the area.

This is another statue by Korczak called Fighting Stallions.



I do not know if Mount Rushmore or Crazy Horse was more impressive ... And that was only the beginning of me exploring the Black Hills!

All the best,
Tommi

Hi there!

Today we left South Dakota and went even further west, into Northeast Wyoming. You can’t imagine how beautiful the landscape was, but maybe you can catch a glimpse with this view over Salt Creek somewhere in Wyoming.



But our final destination was another National Park: Devils Tower was the first declared United States National Monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. But among the local Native American tribes, the tower is called Bear's Lodge. One of the first official explorers of the area misinterpreted the name as “Bad God’s Tower” = “Devil’s Tower” and the surveyors of the following generation stuck to this name.

The name Bear’s Lodge is connected to a story that is different in details, but quite similar in general among all tribes: A group of kids was chased by a bear and prayed for help. And help came when the rock they were standing on rose up to the sky. This saved the children – and it explains the structure of the tower still visible nowadays since the bear tried to climb the mountain and therefore carved it with his claws. You can see this story in the painting:



Science would say Devils Tower was caused by eruption of a volcanic hotspot. Basically, it is a rock pimple. And a very outstanding one: rising dramatically 386 m above the surrounding terrain and, in general, the summit is more than 1500 m above sea level. But it is not really one solid mountain, but made up of single columns.



If you have never been to Wyoming, but cannot suppress the feeling Devils Tower looks familiar to you, chances are that you are very interested in movies: In Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) aliens land here. But not when we visited.

All the best,
Tommi

Hi there,

this is the last part of our trip. We packed our things in the car and started driving down very curvy roads in very foggy weather, but as soon as we had passed Rapid City, the sky cleared and sun was shining brightly.

But sannah and sannah-man did not want to drive home straight, but decided to take the scenic loop through Badlands National Park.

It is a national park in southwestern South Dakota protecting about 100 ha of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie. The scenery reminds me of pictures I have seen from the moon or planet Mars.

But let pictures speak!







It looks really a little spooky, doesn't it?



With not more than 4cm of rain in the whole year, this small creek might be dry forever.



It is hard to believe that this scenery was once covered with a shallow ocean ... Long before mankind lived here. But fossils still can tell of those times and lots of them have been found here.



Prairie grass and next to it dry rocks out of nowhere!

The scenery was really impressive. Or what do you think?

All the best,
Tommi

Hi there!

sannah had promised to take me alone to a very special place in town.

It is located on top of a hill in the middle of a residental neighborhood. sannah parked her car and we went closer.



And closer ...



What looks like a cottage in the English countryside is called Plummer House. It is one of the most historic places in town. Mr. Plummer who was a doctor at the upcoming Mayo Clinic built this house for his family to live in.

Nowadays, it belongs to the local Historic Society. The house itself is closed to the public (but sannah and sannah-man have once attended a special event in there and she told me that the inside matches the outside), but a nearby park is open to the public until dusk.

Even the little shed looks like a small cottage!



The area surrounding the house is very green at the moment and you can say "nature rules". I saw a squirrel and even a chipmunk - but they disappeared when I approached them. They must be afraid of bears.

The backside of the house has a wonderful natural garden.


Nowadays, you can hear lots of traffic through the trees because the Apache Mall is close - but about 80 years ago, when the house was built, it was a the city's south border and the view must have been beautiful and quiet!

Oh, the reason for this trip?
sannah told me I am traveling on my own soon and she wanted to see how I am doing without my buddy Nils. Obviously, I did well and she is not afraid to send me out to Germany! Someone in the sour land is already waiting for me. I hope folks there is sweet, not sour, but sannah has no doubt.

I am so excited I already climbed into my envelope.


But sannah calmed me down. I won't be leaving before tomorrow, she said!

I hope I won't travel for too long ...

All the best,
Tommi

Hi mum,

today I arrived safely in Germany in the Sauerland.

Unfortunately it's raining all day. Hope the sun will come soon.

Can't wait to see this beautiful landscape.

Love

Tommi

Hi mum,

today I get some first impressions of the small village.

I saw the church, the "Schützenhalle", and the new traffic circle. The monument on the top is new, they just did it yesterday. Here in the village three districts come togehter: Kreis Olpe (OE), Märkischer Kreis (MK) and the Hochsauerlandkreis (HSK). That shows this monument.

And I saw the stone od Pater Kilian, he was very important for Rönkhausen, so they remember him.

Love,

Tommi

Hi mum,

I saw some other points in Rönkhausen.

Tomorrow we want to go to the Sorpesee.


Love

Tommi

Hi there!

Back in Germany, sannah found a pleasant surprise waiting for her at her parents’ place: Me!

As the weather was nice, sannah took me sightseeing to her former university city: Halle at the river Saale. A few months ago, the city hit national news because of a severe flooding.

We started at University Square. The Löwengebäude serves mostly official  and representative purpose.



Here we all posed with one of the two lions in front of the entrance to the Löwengebäude which means lion buiding in German.



All buildings at University Square were beautifully restored.



In this building called Robertinum, sannah took classes in classics (history of the Roman Empire).



Then we went to the Market Square – this so called Red Tower is one of the five towers that make up the city’s skyline.



It was nice to get to know all these places!

All the best,
Tommi

Hi there!

Yesterday was fun! I met many other toyvoyagers and had a picknick sitting on blankets in the Lüneburger Heide or Lunenburg Heath. But it wasn’t a toyvoyager meet-up, we all met because our hosts are participating in postcrossing, too.



But the scenery around our place was really really beautiful – have a look for yourself!







Isn’t the heath beautiful in its purple blossom?





Soon I am going to travel again, I’ll stay in Germany first and then travel to an island – at least sannah promised me that.

All the best,
Tommi

Hello Mum,

I arrived in Sülfeld. Dicker Kumpel will be my host here - and he gave me a warm welcome.



Then he introduced me to his guests.



I showed my postcard and my sweets  and then we spent the afternoon talking about our adventures.



I will write more soon.

Love
Tommi

Hello Mum,

We are on the Amrum Island now. It is a beautiful Island in the North Sea. Today we took a walk.



It seems to be a nice place.



We walked along this wooden path.



And I saw this beautiful lake in the middle of the Dunes.





Then we climbed up a Dune and saw the lighthouse far away.



This is the view to the other side.



Here you see the smaller Dunes – maybe they will be high when I come back in 10 years?



It is a very big beach.



Many birds flew around there.



Mum, I have the strange feeling that the weather looks bad on the photos, but we didn’t have the feeling of bad weather.

Love
Tommi

Hello Mum, 

Today was an important day…but not for us ToyVoyagers. Dicker Kumpel’s Mum  RikeH married her finance on the lighthouse of Amrum today. We TVs were not with them, but we waited at home.



There were only some gifts, because they decided to celebrate their wedding alone as a couple.



But someone wrote a huge card! Who was it? Well – how amazing! The ones of you who love Darts will definitely know this man!



Then we looked into a small nice book with lovely poems about love and marriage.



We all wanted to get a piece of the wedding cake!



I liked the flowers!



Later another gift arrived – it was from a very good friend of RikeH. We opened it and found this lovely pair of koala bears together with more nice stuff.



But now I want to say: Congratulations RikeH!

Love
Tommi